Rabbet Block as Tenon trimming tool


Tony Wilkins

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Just read an article in a past Fine Woodworker that I just bought about the best tools to clean up tenons.  Good news for me is that they say that hand planes are THE tool.  They say that a shoulder plane is the best tool for the shoulder.  What surprised me is what they said was the best for the cheek of the tenon.  They showed using a rabbeting block plane or a skew block plane for the cheek of the tenon.

 

I’d really just seen Schwarz demonstrating a router plane for this task but the rabbeting block makes a lot of sense to me.  I see positives and negatives with each however.  Enough so that I’m wondering what you all use for this task?

 

How many of you use a rabbeting/skew block?  Router plane?  Something else?

 

TIA,

Tony

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I have one in one of the plane boxes, but a plane really takes more off than I would want to a lot of times on a tenon cheek.  I end up using Japanese wood files more than anything else for the last finish.  Next coarser would be a Paring chisel sharpened to a 20 degree angle, and a plane only if a bunch needs to be taken off.

 

I took some pictures today.  Notice how fine the shavings are from the Paring Chisel on the offcut piece of a Heart Pine tenon cheek.  I couldn't uncurl them and measure them with a micrometer since they were so delicate.  The light colored pine shaving was taken with a Block Plane, and is 1&1/10 thousandths thick.  I just put it close to the shavings by the Paring chisel for comparison. The Paring Chisel was final sharpened on Diamond Lapping Film.

 

The picture of the tenon going into the mortise was final fitted with a Japanese wood file-x fine.  The groove next to the shoulder is where I went a little too deep with the Japanese plane float, but it won't show or weaken the joint to amount to anything.

 

The mortises are through mortises, so it makes it easy to clean them up on the inside with the wood files, and then fit the tenon to the mortise.

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Please don't take this as a plug for my book, but I spent a good part of a chapter talking about how the rabbeting block plane is probably one of the best hand tool purchases I ever made. They truly excel at cleaning up tenon cheeks! 

Plug away! Patiently waiting for my copy to come in the mail. 

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How about none of the above?

 

I own a rabbet block and three shoulder planes.   I used these planes for a least a decade to adjust tenon cheeks.  For the last 3 years, I've moved to a large, closed mouth router plane to trim cheeks...  :D   

 

Think about it...  The router plane was BORN to create a flat, consistently deep surface, coplanar to a reference surface, as in the bottom of a hinge mortise, groove, or tenon cheek, at a given offset from the reference face,  as in the face the sole of the plane rides along.

 

With one leg of the router on the board, and most of the pressure on that side, the router plane leaves a perfectly flat cheek, trimmed all the way to the shoulder, and is micro-adjustable for the next pass.  Once the plane reaches the perfect depth on the first part, and the stop is set, the cut is perfectly repeatable for additional parts.

 

Long tenon?  Use an offcut from the part or a second copy of the part under the other handle, or install a sub-base (just like a powered router), to support the tool further from the shoulder.   If you have an open mouth router plane, make a clear base to close up the mouth, and bolt it and unbolt as needed.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just read an article in a past Fine Woodworker that I just bought about the best tools to clean up tenons.  Good news for me is that they say that hand planes are THE tool.  They say that a shoulder plane is the best tool for the shoulder.  What surprised me is what they said was the best for the cheek of the tenon.  They showed using a rabbeting block plane or a skew block plane for the cheek of the tenon.

 

I’d really just seen Schwarz demonstrating a router plane for this task but the rabbeting block makes a lot of sense to me.  I see positives and negatives with each however.  Enough so that I’m wondering what you all use for this task?

 

How many of you use a rabbeting/skew block?  Router plane?  Something else?

 

TIA,

Tony

You really shouldn't need a 'bigger' plane (skew block, etc.) unless you consistently saw the checks fat on both sides through timid sawing.

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Just read an article in a past Fine Woodworker that I just bought about the best tools to clean up tenons.  Good news for me is that they say that hand planes are THE tool.  They say that a shoulder plane is the best tool for the shoulder.  What surprised me is what they said was the best for the cheek of the tenon.  They showed using a rabbeting block plane or a skew block plane for the cheek of the tenon.

 

I’d really just seen Schwarz demonstrating a router plane for this task but the rabbeting block makes a lot of sense to me.  I see positives and negatives with each however.  Enough so that I’m wondering what you all use for this task?

 

How many of you use a rabbeting/skew block?  Router plane?  Something else?

 

TIA,

Tony

I would also add that the current FW on tenons should be contrasted with the 'old' FW series of articles about the mortise and tenon joint by Ian Kirby as well as Tage Frid and Frank Klausz..  Amongst other juicy material, all three authors stressed the need for a fit right off the saw with Kirby going into the most detail (almost excruciating detail) about how to actually pull this off.  His first article in the series on how to lay out the joint, mark it, and then saw it has not been bettered in the entire history of the magazine.

 

An article about how to clean tenon cheeks with a rabbet block plane is frankly a cop out given the fullness of the history of the magazine.

 

If you want a PDF copy of the Kirby article, send me your email address.

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Hello Mr Stanford, I hope you stick around and contribute more. I really liked your contribution on paring chisels on UKWS

Thanks Graham.  I love your posts on UKWS as well.  I was thinking about contacting you about your workbench and tool chest.  I have an unfortunate gap in work to do and I was thinking about spending a month or so on some shop projects.

 

Cheers,

 

Charles

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I would also add that the current FW on tenons should be contrasted with the 'old' FW series of articles about the mortise and tenon joint by Ian Kirby as well as Tage Frid and Frank Klausz..  Amongst other juicy material, all three authors stressed the need for a fit right off the saw with Kirby going into the most detail (almost excruciating detail) about how to actually pull this off.  His first article in the series on how to lay out the joint, mark it, and then saw it has not been bettered in the entire history of the magazine.

 

An article about how to clean tenon cheeks with a rabbet block plane is frankly a cop out given the fullness of the history of the magazine.

 

If you want a PDF copy of the Kirby article, send me your email address.

I didn't renew my subscription a good while back.  After being a charter subscriber and so looking forward to getting each issue for so long, it seems like it became more and more disappointing. I think the last time I picked one up was when there was an article explaining that plane irons needed to be cambered.

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Thanks Graham.  I love your posts on UKWS as well.  I was thinking about contacting you about your workbench and tool chest.  I have an unfortunate gap in work to do and I was thinking about spending a month or so on some shop projects.

 

Cheers,

 

Charles

 

Feel free to drop me a line Charles and thanks for the feedback. From my perspective I fully agree about "off the saw" as the ideal, however as we live in a less than perfect world it can be good to know how to tidy things up.

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Just read an article in a past Fine Woodworker that I just bought about the best tools to clean up tenons.  Good news for me is that they say that hand planes are THE tool.  They say that a shoulder plane is the best tool for the shoulder.  What surprised me is what they said was the best for the cheek of the tenon.  They showed using a rabbeting block plane or a skew block plane for the cheek of the tenon.

 

I’d really just seen Schwarz demonstrating a router plane for this task but the rabbeting block makes a lot of sense to me.  I see positives and negatives with each however.  Enough so that I’m wondering what you all use for this task?

 

How many of you use a rabbeting/skew block?  Router plane?  Something else?

 

TIA,

Tony

Tony, as you read the Kirby article I sent you I strongly encourage you to try the gauging technique whereby the tenon fits well when the entire gauged line is left.  Then, the whole line is your signpost to accuracy and it's very easy to see where the cheeks might need a nip or tuck.  You'll find a skew block too big for this.  A shoulder plane works fine or even a deftly wielded chisel -- you should just be hitting a spot or two and you don't need, or want, a wide cutter which could throw you out elsewhere by planing below your gauged line.  Key to this method is gauging LIGHTLY.  Never dig a trench with a marking gauge or a mortise gauge.  The saw tends to want to slip into a deeply gauged line and you may well be lean by the time you finish sawing down to the shoulder.  Leave 'splitting the line' to shorter cuts as in dovetailing.  You need to learn to saw tenons without the crutch of a deeply gauged line, nicks at the back to start the saw, etc. whose aim to to provide a trench in which the saw runs.  Once you've lost your gauged line you are in la-la land if the tenon does not fit.  Gauge so that the tenon fits when the line is left.  See the Kirby article. 

 

If the set on a tenon saw is not perfect you may think you'll just 'split the line' all the way down but the uneven set takes the whole line's wall out further into the cut, and so will a slight wave in the saw plate.  The result is that you can see half your gauge mark at the top, but it's gone about halfway down the tenon cheek and you don't know if it's you or the saw.  Baffling.  The tenon is likely to be tight on entry but loose once it's in and you start a whole time wasting process of extreme-fitting (well beyond nips and tucks) that could easily have been avoided.

 

One day in the future you'll whisper "thanks" when a cabinet door, or a bigger door, isn't going down flat and you can check your gauge marks and know that problem is not in the tenon but likely in a mortise chopped with a little twist or that has a blip of wood holding the thing off or keeping it from going down flat.  Rail to leg joints are relatively forgiving.  The measure of hand cut mortise and tenon joints are flat frames as Kirby stresses in his article.

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Tony, as you read the Kirby article I sent you I strongly encourage you to try the gauging technique whereby the tenon fits well when the entire gauged line is left.  Then, the whole line is your signpost to accuracy and it's very easy to see where the cheeks might need a nip or tuck. 

 

Hi Charlie. I was wondering where you would spring up next. :)    I've been using this technique since I learned it from you on "the other" forum and I haven't look back. I had to get used to sawing just a little away from the line and figure out how much "just a little away" was the ideal amount, instead sawing right to it but that was a pretty easy adjustment and having those lines there as a "sign post" makes the final fitting so quick and easy.  I still try saw so I get a good fit or very very near good fit right off the saw, but there's almost always at least a smidge to smooth off ( I tend to use a float) and this just helps with that so much.

 

This is a really a great tip, and it has really help me improve my M&T work. I encourage others to try it as well.

 

Thanks for referencing those articles. I have a FWW online membership and I'm pretty sure I've at least skimmed them, but I'm going to go back and read them in detail now.

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Very good points about marking with a knife.  I don't remember when the last time was that I marked anything but the mortise with a gauge or knife.  Anything that I'm going to start a saw cut by is marked with a sharp #4 pencil, but I am pretty particular about the pencil.  I never could understand why anyone marks dovetail pins with a knife by the tails, when you are going to cut on the other side of the line.

 

My tools of choice for a tenon cheek are floats, and paring chisel.  I especially like the Iwasaki Japanese floats, and wood files.  The extra fine leaves a finished surface.

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